The Girl and the Dalek
by chaos-entropy
Summary: Tabitha Fox is a young girl who discovers that the forest behind her house is hiding a dark secret - a severely damaged Dalek. Tabitha sees no harm in treating the Dalek as a friend, seeing as she currently has none of her own. However, the Dalek is sending out distress signals, and this attracts the attention of not only the Doctor, but also the Dalek fleet...
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note: Buckle in and get comfortable. The first chapter is mainly introducing Tabitha and her life before she meets the Dalek. Just so you know. Enjoy!**

At the age of eleven, Tabitha Fox had to say goodbye to her friends at school for the fifth time in her life. It was always hard, and she hated it. She had cried for hours three years ago, when her friends from Kenton Juniors – the best school she reckoned she had ever been to – arranged a surprise party to see her off.

This year, she had tried to avoid making friends. It would be easy, after all. While they were living on the army base in Germany, Tabitha's mother had been keen for her to pick up the language, and refused to enrol her in the nearby international school. Tabitha couldn't seem to grasp German, however, and tried to keep to herself during the first month.

This hadn't stopped three children in her class from seeking her out every break-time and sitting with her at lunch. Two girls, named Klara and Susanne, and a boy named Markus. Despite the language barrier, Tabitha had found she got along very well with them. Susanne had even let Tabitha borrow German editions of popular children's fantasy books, in order to improve her skills in the language. Markus helped with grammar homework, and Klara insisted they go out on bike rides every weekend.

Some of Tabitha's favorite days in her life had passed by this way. The gang would cycle into the picturesque countryside just outside of the town. Skipping stones in the brook, searching for local fauna to look up later in Susanne's copy of _Grzimek's Tierleben_, and just coming up with games that seemed to go on forever.

Her German improved over time, and when Tabitha was able to start having more fluent conversations, several more classmates started to open up to her. With the summer vacation period drawing ever closer, something in the back of Tabitha's head insisted that this happiness wasn't going to last. It had happened at her school in London, her schools in Africa, and now it would happen again here. She attempted to cast it out of her mind, and instead looked forward to that one day in July when school let out.

Naturally, Tabitha had thrown an almighty tantrum when her father informed her that he was leaving the army, and thus the family would be relocating that December. It was only two days into the summer holiday, and Tabitha had wished that they simply hadn't told her. It soured the rest of her summer days with her friends, trying to pluck up the courage to tell them she'd be leaving in only a few months, and even thinking there was little point to hanging out with them at all. Her friends in London and Nairobi had probably forgotten about her. Letters and e-mails went unanswered, and she had only recently discovered video messaging. It was just a shame the only contacts on her friends list were members of the family. Grandma J in Bristol who had to ask her grandson Tyrone from down the street to set up the computer, and Auntie Evelyn, who flew around the world doing food journalism, and often spoke to her niece from the airport VIP lounge.

Her mother and father had tried to reason with her, that this was something that had been planned for a long time now, and Dad wanted them to start a new, more stable life elsewhere.

To Tabitha's mind, this was the worst possible injustice her parents could inflict on her. "I'm _happy _here!" She had shouted, before stomping out to ride her bike to either of her friend's houses. She thought she could perhaps be adopted by Frau Bern, Markus' mother. Or any of her friends' parents. She caught sight of a classmate named Elena at the park, and had to quickly pedal away.

Eventually, Tabitha arrived home, too exhausted to continue crying, but still utterly miserable. Her mother, Javine, had come into her bedroom that night, stroking her hair.

"Babe, Daddy's moving us back to England. And you won't ever have to move again, if we can help it. Isn't that a _good _thing?"

Tabitha let the words wash over her.

Her mother sighed. "We've already secured the house. It's a huge place, and it comes with our own private piece of land. It even has a little forest there, that nobody's allowed to go into except us. We can finally get a dog or a cat, too. It's just... Dad isn't happy in his job. He wasn't going to be promoted any more, and he's gotten tired of moving to different countries."

"Because you lose all your friends," Tabitha had choked.

Javine hugged her. "I know, and it's hard for us as well. But your friends will make sure you keep in touch. I'm sure of it."

"You said that about Kenton..."

"No, no. Markus and Susanne and Klara are different."

"You say that, and then it'll turn out to be wrong." Tabitha said, hugging her mother just that little bit tighter.

"Look at it this way: you'll never have to move again, and you won't even have to learn another language. We'll have some stability in our lives for the first time. Don't you think that's a good thing?" She sighed. "Look, I'm going to bed. You'll think better of this in the morning. Alright?"

"Alright..."

* * *

Except, Tabitha didn't feel better by sleeping on it. It took her over a fortnight to tell her friends that she was going back to England, and the days seemed to go by so fast now. Tabitha had waved (and hugged) goodbye to a huge group of kids at school, who had drawn her a large card. _Auf Wiedersehen und viel Glück_. She read everybody's messages in the car when her parents picked her up, their minivan stuffed to the gills with everything that did not need to be boxed up for the removal truck.

There followed a drive into the Netherlands, before boarding a ferry towards a port on England's eastern coast. Then there would be yet another day of driving into the midlands of the country, and finally their destination.

Tabitha passed the time trying to compose letters to her friends in Germany, and staring out at the scenery. Mainland Europe eventually gave way to the isle of Great Britain. Tabitha had lived in a leafy suburb of northern London back when she went to Kenton Juniors, but now they were headed towards deep farm country. While the frost on the ground and the rain ensured there were few animals to see in the fields, Tabitha occupied herself instead with listening to the radio. There was a national short story competition coming up, apparently. She thought of entering it, to give herself something to do.

Christmas Eve and Day were spent in a barely furnished, but incredibly large Victorian house. Tabitha had picked the bedroom towards the back of the house, with a view into the woods and a window seat, perfect for reading on rainy days. As she unpacked the box of books, she bit her lip – the same book series Susanne had used to bond with her. Simple novels about dragons that hadn't been translated out of German, but Tabitha had enjoyed them a lot once she got a firmer grasp of the language. She'd even drawn a bookmark of Susanne's favorite dragon on the computer, and printed it out as a thank you gift.

The hours slipped away as Tabitha wandered back into the old series, pleasant memories coming back to her. The staircase creaked as her father came up to tell her he'd made tea, and Tabitha feared he would be annoyed with her for not unpacking. When he saw the German book cover, he just rubbed his daughter's shoulder and let her be.


	2. Chapter 2

As it turned out, Tabitha was not actually able to attend school that year. The hamlet they had found themselves in – aptly named Little Anworth – had only a few farming families, a few cottages, a church and a single general store. Its selection was so small that Tabitha's mother either drove 20 miles into Epping (the nearest town with a supermarket), or simply did her grocery shopping online.

The only school catering to the tiny populace was a crumbling old chapel-like building, with two annexes. One for the young pupils, and another for those in high school. Due to flagging test results and little money to perform vital repairs to the structure, the school had been closed since September. Local children got up an hour and a half early to walk to the hamlet's only bus stop, and endure an hour's drive each way to a school in the town in a minibus.

However, Epping St. Mary's School claimed it was currently not accepting any new students. Even if Tabitha had been accepted, the minibus company had also claimed that the vehicle transporting the children of Little Antworth was full. Their only option was homeschooling. Tabitha was quite keen on the idea, especially as it gave her more time to read and write the latest short story that was running around in her head. She could take it at her own pace, too.

Tabitha's father worked in administration at the army base down the motorway, and Tabitha's mother had recently gained a freelance job copy-editing books. In between editing and mailing proofs back to the publisher, she had enough time to educate Tabitha. Their kitchen table heaved beneath stacks of text books, and Javine kept her daughter busy with an abundance of homework.

Other than that, the two baked cakes and read in the living room. Three months passed by before Tabitha realised she still hadn't many any friends in England. Her classmates in Germany had written to her (Klara was attending a technical school, whilst Susanne and Markus were going to a Gymnasium), but Tabitha rarely ventured out of her house, except to wander around the garden. Extracurricular clubs were out of the question, with the expense of driving to Epping and back just for an hour long karate class twice a week.

The church hall didn't even hold local clubs. The temples of worship the Fox family had lived near in London was constantly interacting with the youth, but it seemed like St. Peter's was only preaching to a crowd who were only getting older and older.

When Easter break rolled around, Tabitha was given reprieve from her studies. One, cool April morning after breakfast, she pulled on her sports shoes and went out into the large garden to explore. Her mother had recently hired a gardener to keep the previous owner's flower beds and hedges in perfect condition, and Tabitha waved to him as he was reining in the leaves of a laburnum tree.

"What are you doing today?"

"I want to look at the forest. I've lived here long enough, and I still haven't explored it." Tabitha said, making an attempt to pronounce the words like her mother would. Her parents had teased her at the dinner table the previous night for occasionally retaining a slight German accent when she spoke English.

"I'd watch out for the monster if I were you," the gardener grinned. "All good forests have them."

Tabitha gave him a withering look, then laughed politely and told him she'd report back her findings. The forest itself was on private property, and they had had no problems with wild animals since they had moved in. Tabitha simply climbed over the wooden farm gate that separated their garden from the woods, and let her mind wander.

The forest probably only covered about a mile, but it was perfect. There were rings of toadstools and tree stumps, and the tree branches knitted perfectly overhead. If Tabitha had a camera, she would have attempted to photograph her surroundings every season. She had kept scrapbooks for a few years now, chronicling life in Germany and Kenya, as well as interesting things she had seen in London.

Markus had once been on holiday to Baden-Baden, and came back gushing about the amazing hiking trips his family had taken in the Black Forest. Well, this place was certainly reminiscent of the photos that Markus had shown her. A small stream glittered nearby, and Tabitha briefly entertained herself by making a dam.

Further into the forest, however, the trees almost seemed to press in on you. This was the kind of area fairytales were dreamed up in. Tabitha half expected to see a wolf slinking around in the shadows, or her a witch cackling in the distance. She closed her eyes and simply listened to the sounds of nature. The stream, the birdsong... and nothing else. No sounds of the road, no other voices, just pure silence. She hadn't come across a feeling like this since her school in Nairobi had taken the class on a school safari trip into the Serengeti. Of course, you were less likely to be eaten by a lion or charged by a rhino or elephant here in England.

Little did Tabitha know she was being watched by one of the most dangerous creatures in the world, if not the universe.

Wedged between two trees, the Dalek's eyepiece glowed dimly as it focused in on the intruder. So few people came through here, it was a perfect location to keep oneself hidden from the enemy while they recovered. Its silver casing had not rusted over the years, but it was incredibly weathered and dirty. The Dalek didn't know itself how it had arrived, although it had presumed that a temporal shift had gone wrong. Its casing was heavily damaged, its shields and weaponry unable to activate. Movement – including flight – was not much of an option to the Dalek's confused mind. All it knew was that it was stationed in this area, awaiting orders. Every once in a while, the Dalek thought to send a distress signal, but for the most part its mind was almost completely blank.

The shutter of the Dalek's eyepiece zoomed outwards, having identified the girl as non-threatening.

That was, until, the girl heard the sound of the shutter and let out a short scream as she saw the alien for the first time.

The Dalek jolted inside at the horrible, high-pitched noise travelling down into its already throbbing brain. It took a look at the young human again. Zooming in to her face, the Dalek could see some slight detail, despite the crack across the eyepiece's lens and the damage to its visual cortex. Dark eyes and some freckles across the bridge of her nose, crowned by long, black hair in box braids, piled onto the top of her head.

Tabitha looked back, frowning. "What are you?"

The Dalek wasn't sure how to reply. It knew deep down that you did not speak to inferior beings. _ENEMIES DO NOT DESERVE NEGOTIATIONS_ THEY – MUST – BE – _EXTERMINATED. _But the feverish, roiling hatred that the Dalek knew it had experienced in the past did not come so easily any more. In fact, it was strange for the Dalek to think it had ever known itself to think like that. It was better to remain silent and assume the threat would leave. Perhaps _THEN IT COULD BE SHOT AS – IT – IS – RE-TREA-TING! _The thought disappeared as soon as it arrived, though.

Tabitha had closed the distance between them. She prodded the Dalek's eyepiece, flicking her fingernail against the lens. "Are you a camera?"

Something instinctive shrieked inside the Dalek's mind. Had its shields been active, the girl would have died on contact.

"You look really broken."

As if to prove her point, Tabitha moved the eyestalk from side to side. The Dalek screeched internally, waving its gun with mechanical creaks. The Daleks had one major blind spot behind them, and if their eyepiece or head dome was taken out... well, a blind and disoriented Dalek was soon to be a dead Dalek.

_DALEKS DO NOT SHOW WEAKNESS DALEKS ARE NOT BROKEN DALEKS ARE SUPREME! _The Dalek wanted to say this, but found it could not. Its mind seemed to be working so fast these days... Instinctive thoughts came and went, its memory having taken a hit somewhere along the line. A Dalek's working memory was supposed to allow it to hyper-focus on whatever was threatening the Empire. There were still bits and pieces floating around the Dalek's consciousness, but it knew if its brethren were to come on a rescue mission, the only place for it to go now would be the Asylum. The thought terrified it.

"You've got a gun?" Tabitha asked.

The Dalek didn't reply, but knew by now it had been foolish to try and open fire. The ray gun hadn't worked since its arrival on this planet, and neither did the sucker. It knew that there was no chance of repair – unless it absorbed the genetic material of a time traveller – but those would be few and far between. Unless _THE DOCTOR, ENEMY OF THE DALEKS! _showed up.

The Dalek remembered seeing the Doctor at one point. They were on the planet Exxilon, fighting with _INFERIOR HU-MANS _over resources. The Doctor showed up in his velvet jacket... and that was the last thing the Dalek remembered.

"My name is Tabitha. What's your name?"

The Dalek raised its eyestalk into the proper position, focusing in on Tabitha. Its voice box had not been so badly damaged. Speech was still an option, but engaging with the enemy like this was... well, nothing the Dalek had experienced before. It could perhaps threaten the child to go away. Even in its powerless state.

"_NO NAME!"_

Tabitha quirked an eyebrow, not bothered by the reedy, robotic speech at all. Nor the lights on the dome that glowed faintly with every syllable. Humans were normally shocked to discover that Daleks were indeed alive. _THE ELEMENT OF SUR-PRISE_.

"No name? Well, everyone has a name, surely?" Before the Dalek could voice its protest, Tabitha gave the Dalek's ray gun a handshake. "I think I'm going to call you... Hmm. Silver!"

"_SIL-VER... WARRIOR..."_

"Warrior? You?"

"_CORRECT."_

The girl moved slightly away from the robot. Not that she was scared, of course. She was fascinated at the find. It was like nothing she had ever come across in her life. What would a weathered old silver robot be doing in a forest on private property?

"Can you move?"

"_BARE-LY."_

"Oh." Tabitha, by now, had taken up a sitting position on the ground. "Where are you from?"

"_NOT. HERE."_

"Then you and I are the same."

_DALEK IS NOT THE SAME AS HUMAN DALEKS REIGN SUPREME! _

"I'm far away from home too." Tabitha said, resting her head on her knees slightly. She still kept eye contact with the Dalek's eyestalk – which had continued to follow her every movement. "Well, not that I ever had a place to call home."

_DALEKS DO NOT REQUIRE SHELTER DALEKS ARE SUPREME!_

"That house down the forest path is where I live now. But it's quite lonely. I don't have any friends."

_FRIENDS ARE NOT NECESSARY._

"Will you be my friend?"

The Dalek's thoughts remained silent as it mulled this over.

"I... could clean you up and see if someone could fix you."

"_NO. NOBO-DY ELSE."_


	3. Chapter 3

Tabitha had left the robot to its devices that day, keeping her lips sealed to her mother over dinner that night. She had cheerfully informed Ben the gardener on her way back that she hadn't seen anything untoward in the forest. Except a ring of toadstools or two. John smirked and told her to watch out for the fair folk, before heading off to his van. "They can be real monsters when they want to be."

Dinner that night was rice, peas, and sweet and sour chicken. Javine enjoyed this kind of food. It was important to her to keep her cultural traditions alive. Growing up with a Trinidadian father and a Chinese mother in London (after moving there from Port of Spain when she was young) had pulled her between two cultures, but she realised in adulthood that she was all the better for it.

Then she'd met Tall, Dark and Handsome – Bernardo ("Everyone calls me Bernie!") Fox – at a party. An army man from Scotland with handsome Italian features, he had merely asked her for a dance, and they were both smitten instantly. Tabitha was born shortly after their marriage, and then they had embarked on Bernie's military career. Sierra Leone, Kenya, London, Germany, and now this picture perfect, Victorian house in the middle of a nature reserve. It couldn't get any better than this.

"You got a postcard from Germany today."

"Oh?" Tabitha had been stirring her egg into the rice bowl. "Who from?"

"Klara. It's written entirely in German, of course."

"Of course it would be." Tabitha replied.

"You spent all day out in the woods. See anything interesting?"

"Nothing much. I'm going to go there tomorrow."

Javine nodded. "Just don't forget, you've got some Chinese speaking to do tomorrow afternoon."

"Yes, mum."

* * *

That night, Tabitha dreamt of the robot again. What was it even doing? Just stood out in the forest? Sleeping? Could robots sleep? Tabitha dreamt of herself as a mechanic of some sort. Fixing the robot so it could move again and didn't have to remain trapped in the woods behind her house. It'd probably find its way home. Or it could be being controlled from afar by a remote control. Tabitha didn't like that possibility, and plus, who would build a robot for the express purpose of leaving it to deteriorate in the middle of nowhere?

She awoke around 5.30am, and sat on the window seat for a while. She knew what Susanne would have done, back when they used to go hunting for local wildlife. They would write down what the animal looked like on a little reporter's notepad, before going back to Susanne's home and looking through her animal encyclopedia. You couldn't really do that with a robot, though.

The robot probably didn't need food, Tabitha surmised. By now, she had snuck downstairs to look in the garage. She found a tiny can of oil, similar to the one she had seen in _The Wizard of Oz_, when Dorothy and company had revived the Tin Man. Perhaps that was why its speech and movements were so slow and raspy – it needed a fresh application of oil.

For extra measure, Tabitha pocketed a small spanner and a wrench in her overalls, before dashing into the kitchen and leaving a note on the fridge door: GONE OUTSIDE.

She followed the same route she had taken down through the forest before. The light of the sun this early in the day filtered through the trees, and despite the slightly chilly breeze, Tabitha was undeterred.

"Silver!" She called when she was within distance of the robot. "It's me again. I've got you something."

Silver, who had been in hibernation mode all night (especially to lessen the enormous headaches it had upon awakening) stirred at the sound. The processors in the eyepiece worked vigorously to recognise the blurry, humanoid shape coming towards the Dalek. _NON-THREATENING. YOUNG HUMAN. ALREADY IN DATABASE._

Staying silent was likely the only way to convince the human to leave. The Dalek could not bring itself to threaten her – even though it knew just how simple it would be. _YOU HAVE TEN SECONDS TO RUN, HUMAN! BLAST RADIUS OF TWO MILES! _It had a self-destruct mechanism that, ironically enough, did not work any more, no matter how many times the button was pressed or the command was mentally issued. The girl wouldn't know, and she'd too be scared to come back in case the Dalek really did make good on its threat. Humans were overly protective of their homes, after all.

However, a switch in the Dalek's mind had been flipped – although, it was more like a light-switch in the halfway position making the light bulb flicker in and out between the Dalek imperative versus... whatever _wasn't _the Dalek imperative.

"If you want to be fixed, I can help you." Tabitha said. "I mean, I'm not a mechanic. But I could try and repair something, right?"

The Dalek kept its silence.

"Do you mind if I talk to you? I mean... Even though you're a robot, it's kind of nice to have somebody to talk to who isn't from my family."

The Dalek seemed to 'nod' its eyestalk.

"Like I said before, Silver, my name is Tabitha. My dad's in the military, and mum works in publishing books. I've lived all over the world since I was born, really. I was born in London, then we went to Sierra Leone for four years... then Kenya... then back to London, and then Germany and now back in England.

"Anyway, um, I've never been good at making or keeping friends, I guess. I don't remember Sierra Leone very well, but Kenya, London and Germany were all amazing places, where I made lots of friends. They keep being taken away from me, though. It's not fair." She fiddled with the straps of her dungarees as she sat across from the Dalek. "I bet we're going to move again soon. Dad says he's not going to be transferred any more, but... I kind of just know it now. They said we wouldn't be transferred again when we lived in London, and look what happened there."

Pointless. The whole thing was just pointless. Why did humans worry so much about these meaningless emotional attachments? Dalek soldiers didn't have to worry about harming their kith or kin. The Emperor, the Supreme Creator had done away with those emotions. Daleks were all the better for it.

"Mum's been talking about getting me a dog. I don't really want one. She says I can have a dog like my friend Susanne's back in Germany. It was a mountain dog, if you know the sort. They're really big. But I don't see the point if we're going to move. 'Cause I won't be allowed to see her for rest of the time, when she's in quarantine between different countries."

She hemmed and hawed, thinking of a new subject of conversation. "Where do you come from, Silver?"

Silver ignored the request.

"Well, what's hurting inside of you? You look like you've been hit by a car."

The Dalek had never been hit by a transport vehicle, but the exterior schematics flared up the Dalek's brain. A bottom corner of its casing had somehow peeled upwards, and there was countless scratches and dirt marks on its bodywork. The damage was mostly internal, though. Unable to process thoughts or visual images without some degree of difficulty, with most of the robotics inside that allowed for Daleks to function no longer working.

Silver didn't answer again, its mind hurting too much. The request had immediately flared into his brain as _HOSTILE ELEMENT THREAT TO DALEK SUPREMACY_, but then drifted off somewhere before it could process it.

She sighed and poured a portion of the can of oil over the Dalek's dome, rubbing some into the cracked corner of the metalwork. Carefully, she watched for the robot's reaction. There was none.

"I'll come see you tomorrow, Silver."

The fading blue glow from the eye piece watched Tabitha as she left.

* * *

Of course, climbing over a tall farm gate and trying not to spill a can of oil all over yourself was not especially easy. Tabitha's father wouldn't be pleased if he were to find an empty oil can when he got back for the weekend. His hobby was fixing the engines of old army jeeps, and looking into the mechanisms of other automotive parts. Tabitha knew he had more oil, but it was way up on a shelf she couldn't reach, only slightly below the rafters where the Christmas decorations were stored.

Tabitha's father could have a short temper with her when he was accusing her of wrongdoings, so she preferred to stay out of trouble.

When she made it over the gate without spilling a single drop, she grinned.

"What are you doing with that oil?"

Tabitha jumped at the voice coming from out behind the small topiary. Ben peeked his head over, smiling as if he knew something Tabitha didn't.

"Um... um..."

"You don't have a really old car hidden away in those woods, do you?" Ben said. "A bright yellow roadster, perhaps?"

Tabitha had no idea what he meant. "No. Um... I was playing."

"Well, most children play with the toys from their room. Not their dad's garage."

"I wanted to play being a mechanic."

The gardener chuckled. "Mechanics don't work in forests. Tree surgeons do, though. I guess their chainsaw was jammed." He chucked Tabitha under the chin. "Say, though, could you give me that oil? The lawnmower ain't working the way it should."

Tabitha, whose gaze had been directed at her shoes for a few moments, shoved the can into his hand before heading back to the kitchen door.

"Kids these days..."

* * *

Tabitha put the spanner back into its proper place when she snuck into the garage for the second time that day. The wrench must have slipped out of her overall pocket when she was in the woods, because it was nowhere to be found on her person. She'd look for it another time. It was still two days before Dad came back.

The afternoon followed as usual. Tabitha diligently conversed with her mother in the basic Chinese she had grasped. She read her books in German again. While her mother had her hair done that night, Tabitha looked on the computer for a book on robotics on Epping Library's online system. Her mother insisted they go into town every Saturday, so reserving the book on Thursday evening would mean it was ready for her to take from the shelf by the weekend.

It was a children's encyclopedia on robotics, with lots of pictures and even a few experiments you could do at home stored on a CD. It was doubtful that the CD would be included – or even work – but Tabitha just shrugged and clicked the button to reserve the book. She normally made sure to pick out at least one book per trip, sometimes more. One book that had come into the library recently was volume one of the fantasy series Tabitha had bonded over with her friends in Germany. It was slowly being translated into English, and in Tabitha's opinion, rather a let down. There was just something missing in the English translation, and it seemed to skew the final message of the book.

She wondered about Silver again. Of course, it wasn't like this book was going to turn her into an expert mechanic or roboticist overnight. But she wanted to keep Silver a secret. Silver would probably be taken away, and she'd never see him again. It was nice to just... talk to somebody in private. As much as Tabitha loved her parents, she wanted to see new faces from time to time. The robot just stood and listened to what she had to say. Other girls her age might have kept a diary or confessed all their troubles to a teen magazine agony aunt. It just didn't seem right to Tabitha. She wanted to talk to something live, something that wouldn't judge her or ask too many questions.

Tomorrow was Friday, and she had promised Silver that she'd go back and talk with him. She knew if she were a robot stuck out in the middle of nowhere to rot, she'd want some company too.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's note: The chapter that finally introduces the Doctor! Sorry it's taken so long. The Doctor I'm writing is the 11****th**** incarnation. As much as I love 3, 7 and 9, the 11****th**** Doctor just seemed to fit right into the story I've got flowing in my head. Enjoy!**

The next day, Tabitha headed out into the garden, on a mission. She had to find the wrench in the woods and put it back in the garage, and fulfil her promise to Silver. This time, she was carrying a plastic bag filled with books she had tugged off the book shelf. Maybe Silver wanted to hear a story or two. The question of whether or not robots had imagination enough to create and enjoy works of fiction flitted into Tabitha's head. She packed a non-fiction book (from her mother's pile of uncorrected proofs) too, just for good measure.

Thankfully, Tabitha noticed, Ben was not here to ask any questions. He was going to come back on Monday, according to her mother. "I've killed far too many house plants to ever consider ruining the beauty of our garden," she had joked over breakfast. The gardener hadn't seemed to have informed Javine about seeing her daughter toting around an oil can, and for that Tabitha was grateful.

She banged her elbow against the gate as she scrambled over it. It would bruise, but not very much. Not wanting to keep Silver waiting, Tabitha headed down towards the path into the forest. Silver was already "awake", and looking out for her.

"You feeling better?" Tabitha asked, patting the robot's side when she reached him.

_YES..._

Though, of course, the Dalek was not all right. It had panicked last night, mentally issuing hundreds of distress signals at once. It was frustrated to see the girl again, especially after it had been expecting somebody – or something – else to mount a rescue operation.

By morning, it was still exhausted, brain still throbbing at the slightest stimulus. Bringing up a simple information window in its mind's eye was too painful. Overexerting yourself was one thing – this Dalek truly felt like it had been thrown through some of the toughest battles it had ever faced. It welcomed death.

Its eyestalk lowered to the ground, before the light in its lens dimmed significantly.

* * *

Tabitha had to shrug and leave the robot as it were. Nothing she seemed to do could get it to awaken; or even speak. Not even a soft, yet firm hit to the casing did anything, except elicit a metallic screech coming from deep inside.

She dedicated that morning to finding her father's wrench, retracing her steps throughout the woods. Every little area was carefully combed through by her hand, yet it seemed to have almost totally disappeared. It was nowhere near the gate, where Tabitha would have expected it to be. Maybe in town tomorrow she could use her allowance to secretly buy Dad a new wrench and replace it with him being none the wiser.

Or maybe he wouldn't miss one poxy wrench from out of his toolbox.

At lunch, Tabitha continued to think about Silver. Of course, it was way beyond her experience to figure out what was wrong with the robot; why it behaved the way it did. It had barked out a few words since they had first met, but was otherwise completely silent. Maybe there was something the robot wanted, rather than _needed_. It didn't need the oiling, and Tabitha's attempts to understand the damage to its exterior were just guesswork at best. It was strange to her that she wanted to help it. Not that she considered the robot to be her best friend or her pet... But she wanted what was best for it, all the same.

* * *

St. Peter's of Little Anworth had a dusty old store room, similar to many churches of its kind. The room was normally locked up, with all kind of items strewn around and propped against the walls. A Nativity doll sat atop a painted cardboard manger with yellow and orange tissue paper cut up to resemble straw. Several foldable tables and chairs for coffee mornings were scattered around the room, as were painted murals drawn onto large swathes of cloth by the old church youth groups. Stacks of old Bibles and hymn books, even an old, gilt pulpit that had recently been replaced with one of a more austere wooden variety.

Into one of the corners, a blue police box materialised with a thick humming sound. The Doctor fluffed his tweed jacket before stepping out into the room, which was only illuminated by a small patch of sunlight coming through a frosted side window.

He tested the exit, only to find it was locked. And made of wood, too. But, thankfully the door was old enough to be displaced with a single kick.

That led him straight out into Sunday's congregation.

A handful of sour-faced worshippers, interrupted from their hymns glared at the time traveller. As did the Reverend.

"Hullo, Vicar!" The Doctor grinned from ear to ear, skipping up the pulpit to shake the bewildered preacher's hand. "Ever so sorry about the door. You get on with your Easter Sunday sermon. Terribly sorry to have interrupted. You're doing a wonderful job, by the way. Marvellous work restoring the nearby abbey. Oh, and I'd set up a fund for the leaky roof in the church. Just a thought."

He slipped his hands into his pockets, merrily strolling down the aisle and out into the church doors. "Happy Easter Sunday, everybody!"

Once outside, the Doctor's hand slipped into his inner pocket, and he flipped the sonic screwdriver around in his hand.

_Now, where is that blinking distress signal coming from?_


	5. Chapter 5

Elsewhere, Tabitha had spent nearly a week on the encyclopedia of robotics. Her mother had been rather surprised to find that the book was in fact quite large. That was, until the librarian informed them that the actual children's edition of the book Tabitha wanted had gone missing, and a well-meaning member of staff had found the nearest equivalent. It was for adults, but before her mother could put it back and divert her daughter to the children's section, she had insisted on getting it. Javine had put her foot down, claiming she was too young to understand it, but Tabitha refused to be swayed.

"You'll be sorry," her mother sighed as she handed it to the librarian behind the counter, along with her copy of a crime novel from a rival publisher.

Tabitha was learning about the components to buy if you wanted to make a robot with a miniature on-board computer that could follow advanced commands. She currently had it propped up against a pillow in her bed, a torch in her left hand as she tried to decipher some of the more complex terms, keeping a small dictionary was within reach.

However, there was nothing in here – not even in the index, or any other resources she had tried to find on the Internet – about fixing a robot like Silver. The amateur roboticists featured (all of whom were men) discussed having built robots that could follow fixed paths, sound an alarm when an intruder came into a room, fire a weak laser, and grip items with claw-like hands. The encyclopedia had clearly been affiliated with a mail-order magazine, going by all the adverts and some of the jarring shifts between chapters, suggesting various articles had simply been cobbled together.

Her mother had been right. Of course Tabitha wouldn't be able to understand this. Silver was actually more _advanced _than the robots featured. Silver could move (well, if he were in working condition), speak, see out of that eyepiece, and actually _shoot _people. She didn't know about gripping items, though. One part of the book featured a Japanese engineer whose robot was advanced enough to slowly but surely make its way up a flight of stairs. Silver probably couldn't go up stairs, Tabitha thought. _Probably._

The hands of her alarm clock flipped over to the midnight of Easter Sunday. It was just any old holiday to the Fox family. Tabitha would get a chocolate egg and the day would go on as usual. This year, however, Mrs. Fox had thought to enter Tabitha into the local Easter egg hunt. The church were organising it to take place directly after Mass, and it was open to teams of children and their parents. Tabitha didn't know what the prizes were, and church attendance wasn't a requirement to participate.

Only one problem – her mother had volunteered the woods on their property as a point on the Easter egg trail. Tabitha had spent her Friday afternoon trying to figure out a way to hide Silver, eventually settling on the only option available to her. Silver had been shoved towards the very edge of the forest and hidden beneath a small slope, before Tabitha had pushed the robot onto its side and covered it over with copious handfuls of leaves, twigs, mud, and anything else she could grab from the forest floor. It was doubtful that the church fête organisers would come out this far into the forest, but Tabitha felt she couldn't be too careful. Every time she thought the pile was large enough, a voice in the back of her head nagged her to keep adding to it. She'd seen _E.T. _and _The Iron Giant_.If the government were to find out that she had a creature like Silver in her back garden, she'd be in a lot of trouble.

Silver made noises of protest during the time Tabitha was moving him. "I'm sorry," Tabitha had repeated over the course of that afternoon. She had to say sorry a lot that day too; when she came back through the kitchen door, muddy and looked like she'd been dragged backwards through a hedge, Javine had not been impressed.

Tabitha's punishment for getting herself into that state was not being allowed a new library book during their trip into town on Saturday. Instead, she'd have to make do with the tedious robotics manual that was utterly irrelevant to Silver's current condition. Javine announced during the drive home that Tabitha had also been grounded for the rest of the day, which wasn't much of a punishment in her eyes. She simply sat up on her window seat, reading _Der Drache und das Mädchen_, followed by its sequel: _Der Drache und das Wassernixe_. She wondered how Klara and Susanne and Markus were doing, and if they were going to keep their promise and send her the sixth and final book in the series – _Der Drache und das grosse Schlacht__. _

Tabitha had barely touched her dinner that night before going back upstairs to reread the third book in the series. That and formulate a plan to make sure nobody came across Silver during tomorrow's event. She'd overheard from her mother that the overseers had been gone in and put the Easter eggs into position while they'd been out in town. ("Just let yourselves in. We hardly ever lock our door." Javine had said into her mobile phone, stopped at a traffic light just outside of Epping.)

She set her alarm for two in the morning, silencing it underneath her pillow after moving the book back onto the night stand. It would vibrate when she needed to wake up.

Despite her grogginess when the alarm eventually did go off, Tabitha quietly pulled on her boots and a thick coat to combat the spring chill. The torch still thankfully had battery power in it.

Like any Victorian house, the stairs and timbers creaked at the slightest amount of pressure. Tabitha tip-toed her way down the back staircase, away from her parents' bedroom. After shuffling downstairs and into the kitchen, Tabitha shot out like a streak of lightning across the garden once she'd gently jimmied the back door open.

She spent the next two hours scouring the woods for wherever the Easter eggs had been hidden. Some were simply hidden in bushes. One was a short distance up a tree, and would have to be knocked down by a targeted throw. Tabitha didn't know just how far into the forest they would have gone, since there weren't going to be that many people, but she made sure to be as thorough as possible.

The only eggs that she displaced were the ones further into the woods. She decided that if everyone knew that searching elsewhere in the forest was fruitless, and the eggs were concealed within a small area, there would be less chance of somebody going and finding Silver. Tabitha made sure to check on the pile of leaves and twigs. She ascertained that Silver was still underneath it, lying on its side, but just to be safe, another coating of debris from the forest floor was thrown over the robot.

"I'm sorry. I'll get you back up on your... um, feet, when this is all over. I've just got to hide you for now. Okay?"

She wasn't expecting a reply, so it surprised her when she could hear the robot quietly rasp: _"YES..."_

"Be quiet for the rest of the day. I, um, order you to be silent for twenty four hours."

Silver's programming screeched at it. _DALEKS DO NOT TAKE ORDERS FROM HU-MANS! MUST EX-TER-MIN-ATE! _Inside the shell of the armour, however, laid a very lethargic and confused warrior of the Dalek race, unable to grasp on to tangible thoughts. It had lost count of how many times it had tried to self destruct. The distress signals were reminiscent of a rat, eternally pressing the button on a Skinner box for the hope of just _something _happening.

Tabitha left the Dalek to its devices, hoping that... well, it had taken the orders on board. Her robotics encyclopedia had spoken of how some advanced robots could initiate conversation, or remember what they were told to do. If Silver was a robot that was somehow _more _advanced than the ones produced by both amateurs and professionals, then she was sure he could at least remember her command.

* * *

Tabitha's alarm read 11 o'clock when she woke up again. She had deftly snuck back into the house, and back into her room.

What had roused her from her sleep was not the shrill ring of the alarm, but instead the noise of the small crowd gathering in the back garden. From her bedroom window, Tabitha could see a handful of children and their parents, as well as the Reverend Chapman, who was getting ready to deliver some sort of speech, by the looks of things.

She pulled her braids into a quick bun and clattered downstairs once she had gotten dressed for the day. Her mother and father were in the crowd, but Javine shushed her daughter when she tried to protest about being allowed to sleep in on a day like this.

"I _was _going to wake you up. I just have to be here, as a supervisor, to make sure I know all the rules. Now go on, pick a team. Three of you, at least, but no more than five."

While the Reverend was delivering his sermon, Tabitha milled around to see if there were any children she might have been introduced to before. The Fox family had attended the village hall's New Year party shortly after moving in, and on the rare occasions that Javine and Tabitha had gone down to the tiny general store and met with their fellow villagers, Tabitha had been forced to make small talk with a few kids.

Every child seemed to already be in their friendship groups, though. Tabitha cast an inquisitive look over several groups. One boy she vaguely remembered caught her eye and ignored her. Everybody else was unfamiliar – that was, except for Ben, who normally _only _came on specified days of the week. What was he doing here on a family holiday?

"What are you doing here?" Tabitha asked, tugging his wrist.

"Oh, hi Tabitha." The gardener grinned. "I _do _live here, y'know. The Burns estate? I moved there a little while ago, from the shack I used to occupy out the other end of the village."

Tabitha knew that the Burns estate was completed the February after the Fox family had moved in, and had been described by her mother, some of the cheapest accommodation that money could buy. It had boosted the population of Little Anworth from a hamlet to a very small village, and had been designed for people who had to commute to Epping or down the motorway, towards the city.

A man in a tweed jacket stood just off to the side of Ben. Tabitha was certain she had never seen _anybody _like him before. He was skinny, with a sharp jaw and cheekbones, tufts of shining brown hair, and pinned to his jacket lapel was a tiny Easter chick decoration. He had taken a small straw, bitten a small hole into a Cadbury's cream egg, and was now sucking out the candy inside with a thoughtful expression on his face. Like a coconut cocktail Tabitha had seen on a holiday advert.

"Who's he?" She said quietly. It was rude to point, she knew that, but Ben looked like he needed some clarification.

"He's an old friend." The garden gave a twinkling smile. "A really old friend, in fact."

The Reverend called out: "Is everybody in their teams now?"

"Ooh, I love games! Especially ones with a team spirit like this." The strange man said, coming up behind Ben. "You must be little Tabitha I've heard so much about. How do you do?"

Tabitha awkwardly shook his hand. "Nice to meet you..."

"You too. I'm the Doctor. Say, is it true that the forest back there is all yours to play in, whenever you want?"

"Yeah..."

"BRILLIANT!" The sudden outburst shocked both of them. "Sorry. It's just that, y'know, kids these days with their tippy tappy tablety games and, um, football albums... it's exciting to see somebody with _imagination_."

"I repeat: has everybody found a team?"

"I haven't," Tabitha said.

Ben just put his hand on her shoulder. "We'll be your team, if you like. Provided your mum's okay with it."

"She is," Tabitha blurted out. "I mean, she trusts you, Ben. And um, if he's your friend..."

"A very old friend," Ben repeated.

"...Then I guess it's okay."

Javine nodded at Ben when she came around, dispensing the laminated maps that were to be given to each team.

"It's a treasure hunt!" The Doctor declared, grinning from ear to ear. "I love treasure hunts. Well, navigating can be a bit of a pain on a map like this, but if we don't win first prize then I will eat my hat. And I'm not even wearing one. Tabitha, do you have a hat?"

"Yes...?"

"Good. What's it like?"

"It's a sun hat."

"Alright then! Those are good with mustard, if I remember rightly."

Tabitha's eyebrows raised. How on Earth did somebody like Ben know such an utter _weirdo? _He caught her glance and returned it with a roll of his eyes. _Just go with it_.


	6. Chapter 6

Ben's old friend seemed to dart ahead of the team. "I've been many years without an Easter egg, so I'm jolly well going to try and win."

Tabitha, charged with holding the Easter basket, stuck close to Ben. "How do you know him?"

"Oh, just... old adventures, really."

"He looks so young."

"He's older than he looks."

Tabitha shrugged, kicking over a pile of leaves where she'd stashed one of the treasure items she'd replaced. "Oh, I found one!" She called.

The Doctor wheeled around, looking back at the map and the package of sweets Tabitha had uncovered. "Well, aren't they a secretive bunch."

Tabitha nodded, not sure what to say.

The sweets went into Tabitha's basket, and the Doctor beamed before lolloping off in search of more treasure.

"What is he a Doctor of?"

Ben shrugged. "I think a bit of everything."

"Like how my auntie's a doctor in English?"

"Perhaps."

To Tabitha's horror, she realised that the Doctor was heading towards the edge of the forest. She also noticed a strange green light reflected in the laminated map. That only seemed to be getting stronger as they made their way down the narrow path.

"Um, do you _really _think they'd put Easter eggs so far back here?"

"Of course!" The Doctor said. "I mean, it'd be silly not to."

Ben patted Tabitha's shoulder. "Nah, I think there's more to what Tabitha just said."

"Oh?"

Tabitha frowned, wondering where they were going with this line of conversation.

"You've got a secret base or something out here, don't you? Or something else you'd rather nobody else sees. Why else would you come out here nearly every day?"

"You don't know that," Tabitha retorted. "You're not here all the time."

"Well, it's a common enough occurrence." Ben's joking tone returned as the Doctor whirled around, quirking an eyebrow at Tabitha. "I reckon you've got a machine out here. Like an old car."

The Doctor laughed amiably. "I wondered why you'd found a wrench out here, Ben. And..." The green light atop the metallic item in his hand pulsed faintly. "Signs of disturbance..."

"You found it!?" Tabitha squeaked, before trying to act at least somewhat nonchalant. "I was looking _everywhere _for it."

The Doctor crouched on the forest floor, which clearly looked dishevelled. "Traces of _something_. I reckon you're keeping a pet sasquatch."

"What's a sasquatch?"

Ben just smiled, putting his hand in a tree hollow that had caught his eye. "Nah. What'd she need the wrench for if it were a sasquatch?"

A frown creased the corners of Tabitha's mouth. She hated when adults spoke over her, like she was too young or stupid to understand what they were talking about. Or making her out to be a complete baby with a simple mind. Had her parents and their condescending friends learned three languages? Absorbed information from a great many books, like she had? Thinking about it brought hot tears to her eyes, which she angrily rubbed away with her sleeve.

Sensing her discomfort, Ben rubbed her shoulder. "You're a good kid, I know that. But there's something out here that's caught my friend's attention." He motioned over to the Doctor.

The Doctor had taken the little stick and pointed it away from himself with both hands, as if he were dowsing for water.

Tabitha gulped, suddenly fearful for Silver. They were only getting closer – barely a few hundred yards and they'd reach the edge of the woods.

One thing was set in stone in Tabitha's mind. She would _never _allow Silver to be taken away. As silent and passive as Silver was, it was really nice to just have a companion she could talk to. Silver could have taken the form of her teddy bear or a secret diary, but she was otherwise alone. Her house was right at the edge of the village, with a five minute walk to get to the shop where most people tended to gather. There was a bench where some of the youngsters in the village sat and talked, but she'd only seen them at the weekends. One of the ringleaders of one group had given her a dirty look as she drove past with her mother one Saturday afternoon. They all knew each other from school – and since Tabitha currently didn't attend, she was too nervous to go up and ask for their friendship. Normally people had come to _her _to be friends; and now she had to do the hard work, the idea of rejection and torment scared her.

Ben shrugged, having watched Tabitha's body language. "I'm sorry if I what I said upset you, Tabitha, but..."

He couldn't even finish his sentence. Tabitha had taken off in the opposite direction, sweets spilling out of her Easter basket as she bolted away. She climbed the wooden gate, ran through the garden, slammed open the back door and took the staircase up to her room.

All of the doors in the house opened on latches, meaning that it was perfectly possible for Tabitha to lock herself in her bedroom.

Only then did she realise just how _stupid _she'd been. That man, the one with the green pen – he was obviously looking for something untoward. And why was Ben speaking so strangely lately? When Tabitha had first moved into the house, and he had been hired to clear away the huge amount of debris from a large winter storm, she had often chatted to him over warm mugs of cocoa when he was done for the day. He had always been friendly to her, and never normally spoke down to her.

Now Silver was going to be 'disposed of', and it was all her fault. She began to cry again, one of her fists bashing against a nearby cushion.


	7. Chapter 7

The hands of the alarm clock reported that it was 5 past 7. Tabitha had been asleep for four hours, which she found strange. She had felt tired and frustrated when she got home from the Easter egg hunt, slumping over onto her duvet cover in anger.

There was a noise coming from downstairs. The walls in the house were so paper thin that, if one spoke loud enough, a conversation could be heard from the back door to the inner porch. Tabitha had used this aspect of the house to listen in on many conversations when her parents had put her up to bed, or had guests over.

It was definitely her mother's voice she could hear. At one point, her father said: "It's got nothing to do with me," and had probably wandered into the living room to check his work e-mail instead. That was the way he usually handled arguments.

From what Tabitha could tell, her mother and Ben were having a heated discussion.

"What in the _hell _were you thinking!?"

"Look, Javine, I've said I'm sorry multiple times–"

"I don't CARE about that, Ben! Tabitha could have been in danger today and you didn't think to go chasing after her? What if she'd gone and broken a bone or seriously hurt herself?"

"I appreciate that, but..."

"But what!? She's in a lot of trouble right now, you know. And I want to know precisely _what _would have made her act so out of character."

"All right. I just... well, me and my mate were joking around and tried to scare her. You know, jump out behind a tree and all that." Ben sounded genuine, and Tabitha thanked her stars that the next sound she heard out of her mother was a sigh.

"Ben, you're 23 years old." Her tone was still scolding. "I cannot _believe _you'd do something so stupid."

"I know, but it was all fun and games."

"Until my daughter _went missing for three hours _and her father and I were worried sick!"

Ben protested, "She eventually turned up!"

"Yes, right after we'd called the police!" Javine huffed, as if trying to mask the upset in her voice. "I'm just glad she _was _hiding in her room, because if not, I would be pressing charges with you as suspect number one."

"I really am truly sorry, Javine. It was a bloody stupid thing of me to do and yeah, you're right, it's all my fault and I should know better. Would it be okay for me to go apologise to Tabitha?"

"I'll think about it."

"All right, then."

Javine's voice suddenly became steely. "Get out."

* * *

Bernie pursed his lips as he overheard the conversation between Javine and Ben. He knew what Javine said to the boy posing as their gardener wouldn't change anything. He'd still come back as if everything had washed over him.

That was the thing about Ben. He always seemed to be able to bounce back.

Bernie had barely finished unpacking the first box from Germany when he'd gotten a phone call from his new workplace. He was worried for a moment, thinking that there must have been some administrative error. Maybe they were going to ask for more paperwork or that he wasn't due to come into work until a few weeks later.

The lady down the phone spoke to him in a smooth, reassuring voice. "I'm actually calling on behalf of the Unified Intelligence Taskforce," she said. "You may know us as UNIT."

He nodded meekly. "Um, yes. I know _of _UNIT. And what you lot do." He paused, fiddling with the edge of his sweater. "So what are you calling about?"

"Your location is in Little Anworth, Buckinghamshire. Is that correct?"

"Yes."

"We're sending a member of Broadsword your way. That is all." The line went dead.

Any attempts to call it back were futile. Bernie wound up being redirected by a robotic operator to a fish and chip shop in Manchester before he decided to give up and just wait for the operative to arrive.

Bernie had been given the day off work on the day that the agent was due to arrive. He reversed his car out of the drive, as usual, but his sole journey that day was to the end of the village. A small, dilapidated stone house complimented by a front garden with rubbish strewn all over it. He doubted he had the right address, until the front door slammed open.

"Alright? My name's Ben." He offered his hand to shake. He was _awfully _young for somebody in such a secretive branch of the Army. He may have just had a baby-face, but to Bernie, the man looked like he'd barely finished studying for his high school exams.

Ben had a loose mop of rust-coloured hair, a few wonky teeth and a lithe, small frame about him. He invited Bernie in for a cup of tea, joking about having to boil the water in a pan on the gas hob. "It's a bit of a gamble as to whether or not the electricity works in certain parts of the house." He said, trying to put his guest at ease.

"Why are you so interested in my house?"

Ben shrugged. "There's been some _unusual _activity. Blame the last person who vacated it, I suppose. UNIT do this sort of thing as a matter of protocol. I was recently up in Perthshire running around after some job UNIT found for me to do."

"Some job UNIT found for you to do." Bernie scoffed. "Unusual activity in my new house."

"I have to be cryptic, unfortunately. You don't hear the blokes in MI5 divulging everything about the mission to say, a police constable."

Bernie sipped his tea, a slight scowl on his face. "And what if I don't actually want you there?"

"Well, I'm afraid you'll have to take that up with Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart."

* * *

And so it was that Bernie employed Benjamin Wallis as the gardener. A compromise was made stating that Ben was only to work a handful of days per week, to give the Fox family at least some privacy.

Ben was glad to finally have some sort of interesting mission again. Chasing around after electronic background noise with a little machine in a haunted Scottish castle had offered some adventure to him before, but now he was dealing with the unknown. Plus, he would _finally _have a chance to track down an old friend of his.

The Doctor wouldn't be interested in plain old ghostly activity. Alien activity, like the distress calls and interference noted around the one specific site in Little Anworth was sure to send the TARDIS whooshing back into view.

But, for months there had been absolutely no sightings of anything strange. The alien interference and distress calls (if you could call the discordant yelps that and bursts of signals that made the radar equipment jitter around) would come in very soft, short bursts, fluctuating from day to night.

What was frustrating was that the equipment Ben had with him was unable to trace the signals down to a source of any kind. It was just this one site in a poxy little farming hamlet.

He attempted to learn more about the new family living in the house. He had shrugged off the conclusions he had come to before, about the Foxes having some kind of link to all of this. The first signals had been noted a month before they moved in, when they were still living in Germany.

He had ignored the woods on the back edge of the property, though. Intelligence told him that it would be unnecessary to investigate that area, and that he should wait for the Doctor's advice. The Brigadier had even told him down the phone: "Don't you try to be a hero and claim credit for this case, Wallis." No use arguing with orders, he said to himself. _Just wait until the Doctor comes here and we're reunited._

Forty years ago, Ben had accompanied the Doctor on one or two journeys in the TARDIS. He had dropped out of university and was planning on eking out a miserable existence with no job prospects in the field he had dreamed of pursuing for years. Ben had wanted to be an engineer, but the stress of his classes and the pressure from his parents had led him into walking out of the first year exams and severing his ties to the university once and for all.

He had a apartment in a zone of London, but had just been laid off from an office job. He was given a small amount of redundancy pay, but was possibly in danger of losing his lodgings unless he found gainful employment soon. In fact, an explosive dispute over rent with his belligerent landlord was what brought him to the TARDIS. Mr. Parsons had insisted that he pay rent early, and when Ben had tried to calmly explain that he was now unemployed, Parsons had yelled that he wasn't going to house any scroungers or "wastes of space." Ben had lost his temper and shouted back.

He went for a walk to the nearest shopping district to cool his head, and by the time he got back to his apartment following the argument, all of the locks had been changed. He had no money to afford transport back home to Hertfordshire either, and he knew that his parents would only argue about how he'd shot himself in the foot.

Strolling through the park, still figuring out what to do with his life now he was homeless, he'd noticed the wooden police box. Strange. Normally they were made out of concrete. But it had the official designation on it. Still, there was something that compelled Ben to take a look inside. There he met the Doctor, an older fellow in a frilly shirt and velvet jacket who told him to "shut that door, or else we'll get a draft in here."

"Oh, um... sorry about that."

"Don't hem and haw. You're here for a reason, I know. Better than being out on the streets in this weather."

And that was how Ben found himself inside of a spaceship bigger on the inside than the outside. Although the madman in charge of this dimensionally impossible box was exiled on Earth, he told Ben to simply make himself at home, allowing him access to the TARDIS library and some plush living conditions deep within the bowels of the ship. It almost made him forget about the circumstances he had found himself in this early in his life.

"Can't use the blasted thing for adventuring, but I can still tinker about with the old girl a bit."


	8. Chapter 8

Ben tried to stay as quiet and underfoot to the Doctor as possible. He occasionally drove out in 'Bessie' (the Doctor's official mode of transport) when the situation called for it, but he was otherwise couch surfing, staying in the TARDIS or even sleeping in his tiny little Morris Minor.

It wasn't long before Ben realised he was going through some changes. It was nothing that was visible from the exterior, but he was starting to feel like he had too much energy, completely restless. He thought the Doctor would know something about this, and tapped him on the shoulder one day to ask.

"Never really seen anything like it, my boy."

That was reassuring.

Otherwise, Ben learned more from the Doctor than he felt he ever would from his engineering professors. His mind worked at a ridiculously fast pace, and Ben had to really challenge himself to keep up when the Doctor was going off on a rant about some fantastical concepts and machinery that boggled belief.

Right from the early days, the Doctor had informed Ben that he was an alien from the planet Gallifrey, currently exiled near to a UNIT army base. The Time Lords were possibly reassured by the fact that they could keep an eye on the rogue who'd stolen a TARDIS, and UNIT were glad to find somebody with proper alien expertise.

It was unbelievable at first, but Ben slowly accepted the truth. It was at least some excitement in his life, and his parents believed he was still doing his job and living on his own. "I'm gaining some valuable experience in my spare time, actually." He told them from a pay phone one afternoon. "I've found somebody who can teach me a lot more than what I was doing at university."

One day, the Doctor gave Ben an entire lecture on a large alien firearm, which bonded itself to the DNA of the first person who ever used it, and nobody else. It emitted a field which cancelled out mass and allowed its owner to brandish it, as light as a feather... Yet it turned as heavy as lead in the hands of anybody else.

"Isn't it wonderful? I've called it Mjölnir. After the old Norse god's hammer. Which only he can wield, of course." The Doctor beamed.

* * *

_I wish I had that weapon now._

Ben had been scared stiff on the day he was called in for an interview. Not because he'd applied for the job, mind you; an agent from Broadsword had pegged him as the Doctor's new "companion" and decided to get in touch. The interview took place in a dilapidated office building in London, to which Ben had had to ask directions multiple times. The cabbie who'd provided the right set of directions gave him a sour look. "Why would anybody want to go in there? It's normally all boarded up so squatters can't get in."

To Ben's surprise, the doors were unboarded and unlocked. A table in a dingy front room had been set up, and the agent from UNIT was stood at one end of the room as if she had been expecting him all this time.

She had black hair scraped up into a neat bun, and a prim bearing. After ascertaining that the man who had just arrived was the correct person from the dossier she was holding, she spoke up.

"I am here today on behalf of Brigadier Sir Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart. Does the name mean anything to you, Mr. Wallis? Or the names Captain Michael Yates and Sergeant John Benton?"

"...The Doctor's spoken about them a few times, yeah."

"Then you might know that they are all involved with the Unified Intelligence Taskforce, for which UNIT is named. Do you know about UNIT, Mr. Wallis?"

"Vaguely."

"We represent the Crown and the Army of the British Empire's interests in keeping the Realm protected from paranormal, supernatural, or alien threats. Since you're all chummy with the Doctor right now, I think we can safely assume that the Doctor has said some things to you about aliens, interstellar travel, being able to traverse time and space... that sort of thing." Her hands tensed visibly. "You're his companion. But we've been able to ascertain that he is not going to be in UNIT for much longer."

"Oh. Well, um, are you going to follow him?"

"Does it look like we have the means with which to reverse engineer the TARDIS? Many have tried, but none have accomplished it. This isn't about the doctor, Mr. Wallis. It's about _you_."

"Me?"

"Yes. We've been keeping an eye on you ever since you started to become involved with the Doctor. You don't have a job, you took yourself out of higher education, and you're also living in your car. Is that correct?"

"Well... partly, yeah."

The recruiter's thin red lips drew into a grin. "Not partly, Mr. Wallis. Fully. Well, we here at UNIT are actually going to offer you a job. If you're willing to go through our training programme, of course."

"Wait, what? Just because I know the Doctor?"

"Tends to be standard protocol. Plus, life for our agents isn't so bad. There's plenty of travel, and research to be done when you're not out on a case."

"I'm asthmatic, out of shape and near-sighted. If you want a good soldier boy, better look elsewhere."

One of her drawn-on eyebrows quirked upwards. "We'll make sure to give you a diet and exercise regimen to keep you in good form, Mr. Wallis. But don't think you're just going to go into the infantry unit. That's thinking far too small for somebody with your intellect."

She steepled her hands and drew closer across the table. "You're going to be an agent of UNIT Broadsword. Any further questions?"


	9. Chapter 9

Ben had gone back to the TARDIS as quickly as he possibly could, constantly looking over his shoulder when he had been allowed to leave the interview. He had walked down a lonely subway corridor to catch the train back home, with his teeth on edge the entire time.

As it turned out, not only were UNIT recruiting him for his brief companionship with the Doctor, but also because they were certain his current condition (the restlessness and the new symptoms of strange headaches which left him questioning reality, or feeling like he was floating outside of his own body) was something that ought to be researched into. Keeping a close eye on Ben by offering him employment was their way of being there in case something did go particularly wrong.

But nothing had happened, and Ben had gotten on with his life. The TARDIS disappeared from its 'parking spot' in Oxley Woods, never to return.

Until Ben noticed some time in 1979, comparing photographs of his time at university and photos of a drinks party he had recently gone to with some friends in London... that he really hadn't aged a single bit. At the time, he guffawed to potential girlfriends about how he had good genes or should become the new face of an anti-ageing cream.

That was when he had started taking photos of himself almost obsessively. Boxes upon boxes of photos labelled with different years travelled around with him to every residence or hotel UNIT found for him to stay in. Now they were stashed away in storage as Ben started to use digital cameras and camera phone technology to compare himself. Just one measly wrinkle or grey hair would have been enough.

He was even getting accused of fraud on his official ID. His driving licence was very nearly revoked until UNIT pulled some strings. Ben always thought that one day he'd eventually have the rugged looks of a man who could buy alcohol or cigarettes with no fuss whatsoever, but the cashiers still made him feel like a misbehaving teenager whenever they refused to believe his identification was authentic or that somebody so young-looking could actually be of the legal age to drink and smoke.

Ben knew he was due a name change soon, but it was up to the administrative team at UNIT to do something about his bizarre case. He couldn't exactly go to a clinic and report that he hadn't aged a day since he was nineteen years old.

Nowadays he just told everybody he was twenty three years old to avoid confusion, and since his job usually kept him on the move, there was no need to settle down any roots or make any permanent friendships. It was a miserable, solitary existence at times.

The current theory (among the UNIT officials who had examined him) as to why he wasn't ageing – and it wasn't just his face, it was his entire body – was that he had had an adverse reaction to the naturally-occurring radiation in the TARDIS. Ben still suffered from the headaches, despite his best efforts to keep them at bay, and he had to take up heptathlon training to at least try to stop feeling so restless all the time.

Still, the weeks passed into months and eventually years, and it was now 2014. The call to investigate strange alien happenings in Little Anworth felt like a long time coming, and Ben was ready to seize his chance. The Doctor was likely to find this case as interesting as UNIT did, especially considering how bizarre and vague the signals were. Metallic screeches and rasps, multiple pings on the radar equipment, and disturbances in the various atmospheric fields. But still no source, except for the signals flickering in strength on this particular property.


	10. Chapter 10

Tabitha threw herself back under the covers when she heard her mother coming up the stairs. Better to feign being asleep when her mother was angry. She'd apologise to Javine in the morning before she had her coffee.

The latch on Tabitha's bedroom door lifted, and her mother came in. Thankfully, only to check on her. She stood at the foot of the bed, as if deciding what to do. "You gave us a real scare, Tabby." She said finally. Presuming her daughter was actually still awake, she continued: "I hope you realise that. We'll talk more in the morning, but I don't want you to ever run off like that again."

Soft footsteps withdrew from the room. Javine sighed outside and exchanged a few muffled words with Bernie in the corridor before going to bed.

Underneath her quilt, Tabitha couldn't stop herself from thinking about Silver. What an idiot she had been! How could she have been so stupid as to run off like that? Ben and his 'old friend' had probably thought that her behaviour was suspicious and that the area where Silver was now warranted investigation. Had she hidden the robot well enough? And in the worst case scenario, where Ben and the Doctor found Silver, what would they do with him? He was deeply broken. If the Doctor knew something about robots, then perhaps he could fix Silver. That didn't seem likely, though.

Tabitha stayed up for an hour longer, still looking through her encyclopedia of robotics. This time, she looked into ways that robots could be fixed, but the index only seemed to give her details on the on-board computer errors that could occur in small robots made by amateurs.

She was reading a paragraph about the benefits of programming a Raspberry Pi and how a computer science professor from South Africa had successfully used one to create a small house robot capable of multiple functions, when she heard a loud rap against her bedroom window.

Closing the book, Tabitha tip-toed over to the window seat. A friend of hers in London used to wake Tabitha up every Saturday morning by tossing a pebble from their front garden at her window. Nobody would do that now, of course. It was more likely to be the loose guttering above Tabitha's window, which had a habit of slumping down and smacking against her window whenever the wind picked up.

But no, Ben's old friend was out there.

Tabitha opened her window, gesturing with her arm for him to go away.

"Oh, _come on_." The Doctor sighed. He jerked his arm vigorously in a gesture telling her to come here.

She was going to make a rude gesture to the Doctor, but quickly thought against it. What if the Doctor really _could _help Silver? Tabitha put up a finger, telling the Doctor to wait a moment while she got ready.

* * *

The Doctor beamed as the kitchen door opened. He was half expecting Tabitha to continue ignoring him. She seemed like an odd little egg, that one. A bit sheltered for her age, but still quite intelligent and able to discern who was worthy of her trust and who wasn't.

Tabitha had pulled her hair into a ponytail, and was still wearing the clothes she had from yesterday, with an anorak pull-over. In her right hand was her torch, which was still at full battery capacity.

The Doctor went one better. "Ben found this in the old shed you've got out here. Still works!" Tabitha had never seen anything like it, but the Doctor explained it was a paraffin lantern, which illuminated a brighter range than Tabitha's little flashlight.

"We're going to look through those woods, okay? Because Ben thinks you're hiding something, and I've got a bet on with him that he's wrong." His grin was jovial. "Now, it's not bad of you to keep a secret. Plenty of people do. But, this could be pretty big. And if you continue to keep it hidden, the results might just be catastrophic."

"How?"

"Well, this isn't a secret like some embarrassing moment you'd rather other people not know," the Doctor said, beginning to walk towards the gate at the end of the back garden. "Lots of people are interested in this area for some reason, and, well, if you can assist us in any way, we'll be pretty grateful."

Tabitha remained quiet as they clambered over the wooden gate.

"Oh yeah!" The Doctor said suddenly, reaching into his blazer pocket. "When you ran off with the Easter basket yesterday, you dropped things everywhere. Some other kids got to them before I did. But still! Would you like a Jelly Baby?"

Tabitha took one and chewed it.

"My favourite kind of sweets," the Doctor said. He skipped off ahead slightly, merrily swinging the lantern as if it were a thurible.

It was understandable why the image of a forest turning creepy in the night time was so prevalent. Tabitha had heard campfire stories of the terrors in the Black Forest from Markus in Germany, and now she was walking through a tunnel of trees where the light behind her seemed to only recede further and further away.

Noises that were usually commonplace in the daytime became frightening when the sun set. There was a distant hoot of an owl, and the shuffling of leaves from the shrubs and the trees. None of these sounds were supposed to be frightening, but combined with the darkness and the stories Tabitha had heard about these forests, they were. Tabitha gritted her teeth and tried to be brave.

The Doctor's lantern caught the eye of a fox, which slunk away into its den. "Good old British wildlife," he commented. Tabitha had jumped slightly at the sight of the animal, sticking closer to the Doctor. "Nothing to be worrying about."

Finally, they came to the area where Tabitha had hidden Silver. She tensed slightly, wondering whether or not it really _was _a good idea to have brought the Doctor here. For all she knew, he would try to hurt her robotic friend, or send him off to the big government laboratories. But she knew Silver needed help in some way.

She sighed and skidded down the steep slope that led to the ditch where Silver was laid, beneath a huge pile of leaves, twigs, moss, and everything else Tabitha had picked up from the forest floor last Friday.

The Doctor joined her, shambling down the slope as he attempted to keep his balance.

"A leaf pile, eh? I love leaf piles! Are we going to jump into it?"

"Um, no..." Tabitha breathed, working faster by pulling off large bundles of the debris.

When Silver's form was revealed, Tabitha watched for the Doctor's reaction. Silver's eyepiece craned around to look at the two visitors, and a short, metallic gurgle could be heard emanating softly from within.

"Oh my giddy _aunt_."


	11. Chapter 11

"I have almost never said this in my life, but I cannot _believe _what I am seeing!" The Doctor said, swooping over the robot with the pen (which he had explained as being a 'Sonic Screwdriver') in his hand. "This one's _very, very _old. Older than you. Maybe a bit older than Ben? But of course, not as old as me."

"What are you talking about? It's just a robot." Tabitha replied, attempting to get Silver back into a standing position.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow at how Tabitha hadn't been immediately obliterated by the shielding. Silver cried out at the movement, groaning as it focused its myopic eyepiece on the Doctor again.

_ENEMY OF THE DALEKS MUST BE DESTROYED! _The Dalek's programming responded to the visual stimulus, even though it did not vocalise its thoughts. More and more panicked signals rushed through the Dalek's mind. Its gun arm twitched erratically.

"Tabitha, I'd get back if I were you." The Doctor said, his tone suddenly much more grave.

"But Silver's hurt, he can't harm anything!"

Silver focused on Tabitha. The human who had been conversing with him. It may have been a one-way exchange, with Silver often refusing to speak to the girl, but still listening to her for some form of companionship. It was terrifying to be alone; the Dalek Pathweb, a hive mind that facilitated telepathic communications between squadrons of Daleks, was created for this purpose, so that a Dalek would never be left truly alone, or ever think of going rogue. For Silver, though, this bridge of communication had been cut off from him a long time ago. There was still a small channel that faded in and out in terms of accessibility... and Silver had had to manipulate it like a Skinner box, signalling constantly in the hopes that at least one function would go through to the Pathweb and result in a rescue mission.

What laid in store for Silver frightened the Dalek. It knew that Daleks did not fear – and _MUST NOT FEAR! _– but the idea itself of going to the Dalek Asylum was horrifying. Daleks found it wholly unnecessary to try and 'fix' their broken or battle-scarred brethren. More Daleks could be created. Dalek soldiers were bred to receive orders and to be disposable war machines. The humans had an expression for it: 'cannon fodder.' There was no use in slowly rehabilitating a broken Dalek, when by the time the soldier was back on the field, a dozen more Daleks could be created.

Silver ignored the programming insisting on killing the two humans.

The Doctor watched Silver carefully. "You're one of the Daleks I fought all those years ago..."

"A Dalek? His name is Silver." Tabitha asserted.

"Creative. I like it." He put on a smile for Tabitha, but frowned as he looked into the Dalek's eye. "And very apt, actually. He's a Silver Warrior class of Dalek."

"He said he was a Silver Warrior when I first met him, actually. But what are you talking about? What's a Dalek?"

"Daleks are very old enemy of mine."

"But you're not old!"

"Oh, I don't look it. But I am over nine hundred years old. I don't think I could talk about _your _age, though. Since you've taken a fall through time and space. How else could you have gotten here?"

The green light from the Sonic Screwdriver swept over the Dalek, alleviating some of the confusion and the rush of programmed commands that were constantly bombarding the Dalek's mind. Instead of a feeling of pain and lightheadedness, though, the Dalek's mental conditioning was beginning to kick in again.

"_SONIC INTERRUPTION!" _Silver bellowed, but with quite a lot of distortion to his voice.

The Doctor had to be extremely careful not to touch the Dalek. You could never know with the various models of Dalek he'd faced over the years, but he wasn't going to take the chance to wake one up with an errant touch. He was surprised that the Daleks hadn't figured out a way to absorb the background radiation that clung to time travellers. It seemed like the insidious sort of thing that they would do.

Tabitha watched her 'friend' cautiously. "Silver? Are you all right?"

The eyepiece moved quickly to focus on her as the Doctor finished using the Sonic Screwdriver.

"_IN PAIN..."_

"Tabitha," the Doctor said sternly. "Don't listen to Silver right now. _Don't_."

"Why not?"

"_WHY..."_ The Dalek rasped, the lights on its dome flickering. _"__DALEKS DO NOT... ASK FOR HELP...!"_

The Doctor sighed. "There's nothing I really can do here, is there?"

He walked over to Tabitha, before kneeling in front of the girl and taking her by the shoulders. "Silver is sick and broken. It's very noble of you to think about keeping him as a pet or fixing him, but... he really is beyond repair."

Tabitha frowned, looking down at her shoes.

The Doctor let go of her, flipping the Sonic Screwdriver around in his hand. "Tabitha, do you want to say goodbye to him?"

"No!" She ran in front of Silver.

"Look, please don't be stubborn here." The Doctor said. "Nobody could fix him. Not even I can. And I'm pretty good at fixing things."

"_ENEMY NUMBER ONE OF THE DA-LEKS!" _Silver cried, prodding Tabitha in the back with its ray gun. She breathed in, waiting for Silver to continue. Its speech was still scratchy and slurred. _"__I WILL EX-TER-MIN-ATE COM-PAN-ION!"_

"Don't be ridiculous. You can't." The Doctor said. "You're about as broken as they come. That's the thing about being a Dalek, isn't it? Stuck in that metal pepper pot for your entire life. If something goes wrong, they're not going to open you up and take a look at what's ailing you."

Furious at being ignored, Silver shoved harder into Tabitha's back. _"__WILL IN-I-TIATE A SELF DESTRUCT!"_

"NO!" The Doctor shouted. The self destruct was a function that even the most damaged of Daleks could perform. In older models such as the Silver Warriors, the explosion had a blast radius that could potentially level the entire hamlet of Little Anworth.

Tabitha ran from Silver, hiding behind the Doctor.

"_WILL KILL ALL HU-MANS! AND THE DOCTOR!" _Silver screeched. It was only a threat – only a simple threat – but one that would definitely get the human (and the Time Lord) in its midst to back off.

"He never normally speaks this much." Tabitha said quietly.

The Doctor smirked. "I seem to have that effect on Daleks." He addressed Silver again. "Look, you and I _both _know that you can't possibly self-destruct."

"_I CAN!"_

"No you _can't!" _The Doctor snapped, before regaining his composure. "When I was scanning you just now, the Screwdriver was all flashy flashy on the parts of you that _do _work. Less flashy on the parts that don't. Neither of your 'arms' work, except for rudimentary movement. Flashy on the thingamabob inside that allows you to speak. Slightly less flashy when it comes to your eyepiece, but it's still sort of functioning. But the mechanism that houses the self-destruct core all Daleks are built with? No flash whatsoever. You can't even open yourself up to escape the cold metal _cage _you've been housed in all your life. Not that you could survive out of it."

Tabitha stared. "So there's something inside the robot?"

"Yes. A pink blob that's mostly brain and tentacles with a nasty sting. All surgically connected together to allow this machine to move."

Tabitha remembered a creature somewhat fitting that description from _Grzimek's Tierleben_. "So... it's a robot being controlled by–"

"A _Tintenfische, _ja_._ Kind of like a squid, but kind of not."

Silver moved towards the Doctor suddenly barking: _"__I HAVE THE DA-LEK FLEET ASSEM-BLING!"_

The Doctor snorted. "Them and what army?"

"_THE SU-PREME DALEK ARMY!" _

"Yeah, yeah, I know you lot are a bit slow on the uptake with jokes. Plus, you're not exactly a shiny new Dalek. Your link to the Pathweb is quite fuzzy compared to the ones I've seen recently. Screwdriver says so."

"_THE ARMY ARE COMING!"_

The Doctor sighed. "They really are not. Your mind can't even _comprehend _rationality right now, let alone logic. And I'm saying this to a Dalek, of all beings! Irrationality is the kind of thing you lot thrive on. I suppose it's like explaining fair war tactics to a Sontaran."

Tabitha looked puzzled. "Irrational?"

"Yes. These guys _hate _anyone that's different. Absolutely anybody in the galaxy. If you're not a Dalek or some ally of theirs, you deserve to die."

"He hasn't killed us."

"Oh, yes he wants to, Tabitha. It's buried deep down and is resurfacing 'cos I'm around. I'm kind of a big name to these guys. But he's threatened to blow himself up, and between you and me, if he could open up his casing, he'd probably try to sting us. Not a nice way to go. Very toxic, nasty venom."

Tabitha blinked before pinching herself.

"No, you're not dreaming. The metal monster you're trying to keep as a pet is really an ancient alien enemy of mine, and I'm going to make sure it's dealt with."

Silver's eyestalk drooped. _"__A-SY-LUM?"_

The Doctor shrugged. "Are you claiming it, or do you mean the Dalek Asylum?"

"_A-SY-LUM OF DA-LEKS!"_

"Alright, alright!" He stepped back from the Dalek, circling around him. "Yes, you'll probably be sent there if the Dalek fleet gets wind of this. There's nobody here who can fix you."

"_YOU COULD!"_

Rolling his eyes, the Doctor stood still. "Question is, would I?"

"_THE DOC-TOR WILL PLACE HIS HAND U-PON MY CASING!"_

Tabitha took a step out from behind The Doctor. "Why not just do it? If you could heal a sick person just by touching them, wouldn't you?"

"If it were a genocidal maniac who will go on to kill every living thing on the planet, then I think I would be having second thoughts." The Doctor said carefully. "I'm not going to say that this poor old boy's not worthy of our compassion. I'm sure it must be dreadful to fall down onto Earth after a temporal shift went wrong, and to be so badly damaged inside you can barely move or think straight. But... inside of the armor is still a slimy monster who's programmed only to hate. Even if he has been somebody who'll listen to you where nobody else has. Even if you think he's some cool robot pet, you _can't _think of him as somebody who'll learn kindness, be healed, and then come out of the other side as a perfectly tame beast. Trust me, I've _seen _what happens when Daleks go on the rampage."

His strong grey-green eyes looked directly into Tabitha's face. "You're going to have to say goodbye to Silver, because I do not want to see innocent people die. We'll take him back to the UNIT labs, and figure out a way to euthanise him. Is that okay with you?"


	12. Chapter 12

Tabitha had to walk back solemnly to the kitchen door by herself, while the Doctor 'made a few phone calls'. He withdrew a large brick of a mobile phone from his tweed jacket that looked more like a walkie talkie, before shooing her gently.

In the end, Tabitha hadn't been able to say goodbye at all. The light in Silver's eyepiece had dimmed considerably. The only sign of consciousness Silver had was a small hum he made when Tabitha did stammer out her farewells.

She ascended the old servants' staircase in her house that allowed her access to the end of the upstairs hallway, where her room was the first door on the left. It was something of a miracle that none of the older steps or wooden floors had creaked loudly. Tabitha was already grounded – she didn't want to incur more punishment.

Strangely, she felt more awake than ever, worrying about Silver. One of her German fantasy novels lay on the window seat overlooking the garden, and she wiled away an hour or so as the sun rose reading about the maiden being captured by the dragon, but reconfiguring his behaviour and bringing him back to the royal court as loyal as a puppy. The king was so impressed with her that he immediately gave her a military role as Chief Dragon-Master.

The book's ending always made Tabitha smile. She liked the idea of the heroine going on exciting adventures and using her wits to find her way out of predicaments. Some of her mother's favourite childhood stories all seemed to revolve around princesses who were content to wait to be rescued, but Tabitha had always been more interested in the folklore from her mother's native Trinidad. "Strange child," her mother had said to her one day. "What kind of little girl likes hearing stories about ghosts and witches more than fairy tales?" Tabitha shrugged. "My little girl," Javine had answered. "And I wouldn't trade you for the world."

Tabitha could hear her mother's alarm clock from down the hall, and her footsteps into the adjacent bathroom. She changed into a new set of clothes so that her mother wouldn't complain, and went downstairs to start breakfast. At Tabitha's age, this was just setting out the bowls of cereal and yesterday's bottle of milk.

Javine ran her hands through her hair as she entered the kitchen. "You're up early," she commented to her daughter. "Been up early a lot recently."

She nodded, quietly eating her cereal.

"You're not having any problems sleeping, are you?" Javine asked.

"No, not really," Tabitha answered. "Just reading."

"Just reading." Her mother quirked an eyebrow. "It's not healthy to stay up all day and all night."

"I know."

The phone rang. The handset in the kitchen had gone missing somewhere, and its batteries had presumably died so nobody could go looking for it. "Let your dad answer it," Javine said to Tabitha.

The phone clicked after only a few rings, and they could hear Bernie talking on the upstairs handset.

"Yes... yes... I know. Alright." He paced in the hallway as he spoke, the timbers in the kitchen below creaking with every faster, clumsier step. Then there was a longer period of silence, and some indistinguishable, quieter words. Usually this meant it was something to do with work. Tabitha craned her neck slightly to listen, but Javine signalled for her to stop and finish her meal.

Bernie eventually came downstairs, in a striped bathrobe. "Morning, sunshine," he said to Tabitha, patting her head. While Javine cleared away breakfast, Bernie turned on the grill for a toasted bacon sandwich.

"Say, why don't we go out as a family today? I've been given the day off work." He said to nobody in particular. "Drive across the county border. See the sights of Oxfordshire..."

* * *

It only took an hour or two for the Fox family to get ready and pack up the car. Bernie was gushing all about the natural parks and the quaint little villages, and surprised Javine by telling her that they were headed to a bed and breakfast tonight.

"My treat," he smiled.

Javine kissed him.

Tabitha could sense in her father's behaviour that something was up. She had almost forgotten the Doctor sending her away, and having to say goodbye to Silver. It hurt a little, but she knew it would be for the best. Perhaps the men working with the Doctor had gotten in touch with the army, who had in turn gotten in touch with her father. Her mother had just loved the spontaneous nature – and Bernie was a good enough actor to pretend that this trip had been booked for a while now.

She clambered into the back of the family sedan, a few books tucked underneath her arm for the journey.

When they pulled out of the driveway and traveled down along the main road, Tabitha couldn't help but notice several covered army trucks headed in the direction of her house, rather than their usual destination of the nearby army base.


	13. Chapter 13

The Doctor hadn't made any phone calls after all. He just figured that it would be a quicker method of sending Tabitha along on her way if he did. He ran further diagnostics on the Dalek using the sonic screwdriver, clucking his tongue at the results. The Sonic Screwdriver had overridden a Dalek's programming once before, but the instrument simply couldn't penetrate this Dalek's control system. The Doctor had to stop anyway – the Sonic Screwdriver had resulted in a full-on _scream _from the Dalek, and although he'd heard the horrible, discordant noise a few times in his life, it always made the Doctor wince. Plus, it would likely attract attention.

The only other avenue open to him was to actually touch Silver's casing and open him up. Not a good idea for a time traveller. It was fairly frustrating to the Doctor that there would be no other way than for UNIT to do something about the Dalek. Of course, he knew that Daleks from this era probably only had a crude shielding ability. Perhaps enough to zap away an intruder or render itself invulnerable to traditional, non-Dalek weaponry. Not that Daleks would ever let anybody get that close to them, anyway. The Doctor recalled how Davros was continually tinkering with the Dalek design. You always had to be on your toes with every new incarnation of them. One thing was constant, though – he could always talk Daleks out of killing him. It was kind of amusing, really.

All the Doctor had to do now was to head off to Ben's home and alert UNIT. In parting, he gave the Dalek an awkward wave. "See you in a few hours, mate."

Silver demurred, looking up at the Doctor with his eyepiece fully illuminated and focused. "Place your HAND on ca-sing!" He weakly rasped. "Heal me... ASSIST! ASSIST!"

"Not a chance."

With a turn of his coat-tails, the Doctor left the Dalek back in its hiding place in the woods, behind the large house where nobody would ever think to look for it.

* * *

Ben had a pot of coffee brewing as the Doctor sailed in through his back door. "I spoke to Tabitha. She's fine with us taking it away. Ooh, coffee. Not my kind of thing, really. I'm really liking lime cordial right now. You got any of that?"

The UNIT agent attempted to keep up with the Doctor. Ever since he'd learned more about the mysterious figure who had given him a place to stay, he'd been absolutely fascinated yet perplexed as to how he could change his face and go on so many adventures throughout the cosmos... Well, Ben had been on a fair few adventures throughout Britain and Ireland, but he hadn't been able to change _his _face. Or rather, he had been frozen in time with no chance of ageing.

When Ben was put in touch with the Doctor, whose TARDIS had materialised in the village church following the strange broadcasts, and a message from UNIT to help out with whatever creature could be sending out these transmissions, he had spent an entire night up with him just talking about all the amazing things the Doctor could do, and what he had done over the course of his long life. Most importantly, he'd sought an explanation of his peculiar condition.

The Doctor gave him the exact same diagnosis that other UNIT theorists had guessed at. The radiation picked up by all time travellers – generally, everybody who had ever taken a journey in a Gallifreyan time travel machine or had fallen through a rift in time was the supposed culprit.

"Never seen anybody like this, though. Generally it just clings to you, completely harmless."

Ben had frowned. The answer he'd been looking for all his life, and here was the Doctor just shrugging his shoulders and picking the most easy option. "Take me into the TARDIS again," Ben had insisted. "You could at least do some further research."

"I will, I will. But right now we've got more important things to worry about."

Back in the present, Ben poured the Doctor some limeade. "Shall I get you some Party Rings too?"

"Those would be wonderful," the Doctor grinned. "Nah, you don't have to, really. I came to tell you that Operation Find The Strange Alien Signal in the Village can enter its second phase. Or something like that."

Ben poured himself a coffee – milky, with two sugars. "You've found out what it is?"

"Oh, yes. UNIT are going to have a right _peach _on their hands with this one. I don't know whether or not you'll want to research it or simply kill it on the spot. I'd pick the latter, if you could. It's a Dalek."

"A what?"

The Doctor downed his limeade in one gulp. "A Dalek. Did I never tell you about them?"

"You did. You said you'd been to the planet Vulcan and fought them. I think you said they were 'nasty little buggers'."

"Well, they're nasty and they're buggers, but they're certainly not little," the Doctor clarified. "A Dalek is brought into the world knowing only one thing: the Dalek race is supreme and anything else genuinely deserves to die. Any time a Dalek has been on Earth, there's been nothing but trouble. They're my greatest enemies, and perhaps the most dangerous creatures in the universe."

"More dangerous than... what were they called... Ice Warriors?"

"Yes, way worse."

By now, Ben had sauntered over to the phone, lazily twirling the cord around his finger rather than dialling any buttons. "I'll mobilise UNIT into Phase II, then, if they're that bad."

"Tabitha – the little girl in that big house you work at? That's what she's been hiding in the back woods." The Doctor said.

"A Dalek?"

"A Dalek with a very badly damaged core. Completely harmless. She just latched on to it as a kind of friend."

"An imaginary friend?" Ben thought the idea was precious, but then again, Tabitha was eleven and should have grown out of the need for imaginary company by now. "I mean... like how kids give personalities to their toys?"

The Doctor made himself another glass of limeade. "Yes."

Ben frowned. "That's terrible, isn't it? She's homeschooled and doesn't attend any clubs. Only people she sees around are her mother and occasionally her father, and myself. The village kids don't seem too bothered about her either."

"Desperate enough to try making friends with a Dalek..." The Doctor grinned, chuckling to himself. "It's both sad and, well, understandable."

"I hate making observations like this, but the poor girl's just stuck in limbo at the moment, until she starts secondary school next year. Don't think she's going to find making friends so easy now she's out from behind her mum's skirts."

"Time will tell," the Doctor stood up from the kitchen table, joining Ben at the small counter where he kept the landline. "Remember UNIT's access code?"

"Of course I do."

* * *

The Doctor and Ben had been picked up by a covered truck outside of the house merely an hour after issuing the order down the telephone. A stony-faced young captain drove them down the village main road, and swerved into an intersection where they met a few more military vehicles, all in a neat line as they navigated through the country lanes.

UNIT had deemed this amount of support necessary. One could never be too careful with a Dalek, and arrangements were being made for transport to Torchwood if UNIT were incapable of housing and/or killing this alien threat.

"Sergeant Bernardo Fox and his family have left the area," came a mumble over the radio.

The Doctor was always surprised by just how out-of-the-way the house was. Unless you were given specific directions, you wouldn't find the place, with its enormous hedged driveway and vast farm fields to pass. Although it was only five or ten minutes away from the village proper, it felt like a lot more, located out on its own like this. No wonder Tabitha had felt so isolated here.

Sergeant Fox worked mainly in administrative duties for the army, and took care of the affairs of junior officers. He refused to consider himself 'retired' – merely stepping back from more active duties. He had been commended and promoted several times over the past decade, taking his wife around the world on various military postings, and now he simply wanted to settle down for a change. The Army had provided that with this job opportunity at a military base near a quaint little hamlet.

Now he really was back on active duty, following a large pay check from UNIT and the assurance that their people would get in touch with a fancy bed and breakfast hotel in the Oxfordshire village he and his family were currently traveling to. At least three months' salary, plus a little weekend vacation. All for allowing a secretive military platoon to investigate the woods at the end of his garden.

The military trucks and cars parked on the front lawn, as the driveway was only enough to accommodate one or two vehicles at most. The Doctor leapt out of the car door when the vehicle came to a stop.

"There's a gate at the side. No need to go through the house." He said merrily, clambering over the old wooden farm gate and knocking over a garbage can on his landing. Ben picked it up, rolling his eyes at the Time Lord, who returned his look with a dopey grin. The other military personnel simply undid the gate's latch, and followed the Doctor and Ben down the long garden in a neat crowd.

The Doctor remembered exactly where Silver was, coming to a stop in front of the machine. Several UNIT members took up active positions beside the Doctor and Ben, holding firearms that had been especially engineered to be effective against Daleks. There were only a few of these guns in the entire world, and the Doctor had had to assist in creating them.

"Silver?" The Doctor walked a little closer to the Dalek.

To his surprise, the creature's eyepiece lit up in recognition.

"Doctor..."


End file.
